The Zen Way to the Martial Arts (Zen et Arts Martiaux)

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Deshimaru's most widely read book in English: a sustained meditation, originally published in French in 1977 as Zen et Arts Martiaux, on the shared root of zazen and bushidō. Drawing on his Saga upbringing and on kendō and judō practice with his European students, he frames the martial arts as a particular case of mushotoku attention — concentration without goal, action without ego — and uses them to explicate posture, breathing, and the quality of mind he called hishiryo. The standard introductory volume to his teaching for non-French readers.

tr. Nancy Amphoux, E. P. Dutton, 1982 (FR original Editions Albin Michel, 1977)

license: fair_use

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Taisen Deshimaru

Lineage: Sōtō

By Taisen Deshimaru

• Just Sitproverb
• The Cosmos in the Postureproverb
• Automatic Thinkingproverb
• Observe Your Own Mindproverb
• Mushotoku: Without Seeking Gainsaying

Sources

• contentThe Zen Way to the Martial Arts

  Taisen Deshimaru

  Editor's preface and chapters on posture, breath, and the mind of bushidō

  Zen and the martial arts share a single root in concentration on the body's posture and breath; the warrior's discipline and the practice of zazen converge in the attitude of mushotoku, action without expectation of result.